Post Cupid's Arrow
by vingtquatre
Summary: This series of fics takes place Post Cupid's Arrow immediately following Brandon and Kelly's reunion after he cheated with Emma.
1. Chapter 1

Post - Episode entitled "Cupid's Arrow" Season 8

"I believe you."

"Why?"

"Because I love you."

Brandon couldn't believe what he was hearing. _Is this for real? Is she really hugging me?_ He closed his eyes and just let himself feel his cheek against hers. He heard Kelly let out a faint "mmmm" as they both just experienced being back in each other's arms.

As he felt her arms around him and closed his eyes he thought about how long he'd wished and prayed for this moment. It felt so amazing to be back in her arms again. To be loved so much by this incredible woman that she'd actually forgive him for what he'd done. He didn't deserve it.

He felt relief and joy, but a sickening unsettled feeling also plagued him.

"Kel..." he started, as they eased apart. He looked hesitant..worried. ..nervous. This was not the response Kelly came here expecting to get.

Her smile began to fade. "But if you've moved on..." Tears welled in her eyes and her voice cracked as she continued "...or don't feel the same way..."

Brandon's heart broke at those words. Here he was hurting her all over again.

"No, no, no, that's not it at all. You're here and I'm here and we're hugging and your not slamming doors in my face ... It's amazing I'm just... Soo..." He stammered.

Not feeling any more reassured, "Brandon, what is it ?" Kelly asked.

"Let's sit down and talk."

"ok..."

Brandon walked a few feet into the living room and sat down on the couch. Kelly sat down next to him a couple feet away.

Brandon looked down at his lap for what seemed like a eternity. "Brandon?"

Brandon inhaled sharply and looked up to meet Kelly's eyes.

This time tears filled his eyes as he spoke, "I can't believe that I almost lost you."

"Brandon..."

"No Kelly look, I need to say some things before we decide anything."

Through tears she looked at him expectantly.

He looked directly into her eyes and said, "Kelly I love you. I love you more than you could possibly know. When I walked through that door about a month ago and saw you sitting in that chair over there... I knew. I saw that look on your face and I knew then how much I had hurt you. I hate myself for it. "

Brandon took Kelly's hand in his hands and looked at her intensely as he continued. "I will _never_ hurt you again. I want to be with you more than anything. But _only_ if that's what makes _you_ happy because I can't handle seeing you sad another day."

"I know you love me Brandon. You did something I'd never imagined you capable of doing. I can't pretend to understand how or why...when I found out, I thought I don't even know this man...he's a complete stranger to me...but when I look at you... You're you. And everything good inside of you is still there. I love you."

"So, where are we? What does this mean?"

Kelly smiled. "I'm going to stay living at the beach apartment. I'm not ready to live together again...that will take some time."

"I understand."

"So I'm going to go. I'm tired and kind of emotionally drained." She laughed nervously.

Brandon chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, okay."

They both stood up at the same time and headed to the door. Kelly turned to face Brandon. "I love you Kelly." He leaned in and gave her a tentative kiss on the cheek.

Kelly grabbed his face with two hands and kissed him passionately. "I love you too. I'll call you later."

As she shut the door Brandon just stood there for several moments. He let his head fall against the door and took a deep breath. He couldn't believe that just happened.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Later that night at the beach apartment, Kelly was sitting on the couch with a book in her lap. She had read the same sentence over and over again. She couldn't stop thinking about this afternoon with Brandon.

The phone rang, interrupting her thoughts.

"Hey, Kel."

"Brandon. Hi. I was just thinking about you."

"Good thoughts I hope..." he said tentatively. He let out a long sigh.

"Yeah, they were good thoughts. I haven't felt this good in a long time actually...I really missed you Brandon."

"Yeah, I missed you too... Listen, are you busy tomorrow? I'd like to spend some time with you."

"That sounds really nice. "

He smiled. "Okay, you leave the details to me. "

"Ooooh! I love surprises... Okay."

"I love you Kel."

"I love you Brandon. Goodnight."

The next morning Brandon woke up at six. He showered, shaved and took extra care doing his hair. He put on a splash of the cologne he could do without, but he knew Kelly loved. He was anxious. He was excited. It felt like their first date, which he supposed in a way it was. It was a new beginning - the beginning of the rest of their lives.

Brandon let himself into the beach house a half an hour later carrying bagels, fresh fruit and juice. He carefully and quietly made a tray of food. He carried it quietly down the hall and opened the door to Kelly's room. He places the tray beside her bed and sits gently on the edge of the bed. She doesn't stir. He looks around her bedroom and notices how it looks different than the last time she lived there. It looked lived in but without the same homey touches that it used to have ...the same touches she had done to the Walsh house when she moved in. She even appeared to be partially living out of a suitcase. He felt that familiar pang when he thought of how she lost her home because of him. He sighed softly and cupped her face gently with his right hand. She stirred and he bent down and kissed her on the top of the head. He smiled.

"Hi," she returned the smile. "What are you doing here? What time is it?"

"Just looking at you. I brought you breakfast. It's almost 8."

"Breakfast?!" she asked in a playful voice.

"Breakfast." he replied while placing the breakfast tray on her lap. He kissed her again on the forehead.

"This is a nice way to wake up. Thank you Brandon."

"You're very welcome."

They both ate while they talked. "What are we doing today?"

"Well if you're up for it, I planned something kind of nice for us. At least I hope it'll be nice."

" Something nice? Any more details than that?"

"Look, Kel, I know that things can't just be the way they were before right away. I know that this is going to take work to heal and fix. I hope today is just the first step to that. "

"Do you think it's possible that we won't be able to go back?".

Brandon sighed heavily and dropped his head. "Yeah, I do. But I'm not giving you up without a fight. I can't. You're much too important to me. ".

"You said that once to me before. Do you remember?"

"When I proposed to you the first time."

Kelly looked confused. "The first time?"

"I want there to be a next time, Kel. " Brandon smiled and chuckled softly while kissing Kelly on the top of the head "with a different end result that is."

"You do?"

"Of course. I mean I used to think about it all the time. Before I messed everything up...didn't you ever?"

"Of course I did Brandon. Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Maybe we've already exhausted this issue but... I don't know...I just don't understand how... Like you just said..."

"You want to know how I could sleep with someone else if I was thinking about marriage with the woman I love?"

"Yeah something like that."

"Kel... I don't know if anything I say is going to help you understand. But you asked so I'll try..."

"It's like the only time we have really talked about it is when you were trying to get me back... now it's like we're back together...you have no reason to lie to me now," replied Kelly.

Brandon sat thinking quietly for a few moments and began "I am not going to hurt you with the details and I also don't want you to think I'm trying to blame anyone but myself for this but well…anyway here it goes. Emma came on to me from the first day I interviewed her. I should've just told her we didn't need her to write for the paper after all but I honestly thought she'd be good for the paper and I thought if she got the job she'd stop the flirting."

Kelly dropped her head and when she looked at Brandon again he saw she was crying.

"No, no, no I don't want to upset you. Let's not talk about this."

"No Brandon its hard but I need to hear it."

"Fine. Basically she came on to me several times and I told her no. I told her I loved you. I must have told her that a hundred times but she didn't stop. She said things like 'I'm sure you do'. "

Kelly interrupted Brandon, "See that's the part I don't get. You saw this coming. You knew what she was trying to get you to do. Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you fire her? I think that's what hurts more then the fact that you slept with her...all the deceit and lies leading up to it. That's what hurts."

"I know Kel, and this I'm sure will sound disingenuous now but it really wasn't easy for me to do that to you. If you think it came naturally to me, you're wrong. That's a hard question to answer. I think at first I thought it would stop. She would stop when she learned I had a live in girlfriend who I loved. So at first I thought maybe I'm overreacting. Maybe she's like that with everyone….no need to stir things up. When I realized what Emma was really about, the other stuff made more sense. Then it felt like _wow I really should have told Kel about the other stuff_. And so I hid it all. I guess once I started with that omission the whole thing just spiraled out of control."

"I want to hear about that night."

"No you don't "

"No, I do. It sounds weird but this is actually helping. As hard as it is to hear..."

"Kel..."

"Brandon please. "

"Fine. She lied. She said her email wasn't working so shed gave to give me a disk of her article. She asked if I could pick it up. I did. I stayed in the doorway. She was barely dressed when she answered the door. She admitted it was a scam to get me in her apartment. She kissed me and I finally just let it happen...you know the rest. That was the only time. When I told her it was a mistake and would never happen again she flipped. That's the whole story."

Kelly wiped her eyes and gave Brandon a quick smile "Okay, how about our nice day? Shall I jump in the shower?"

"That's it?" Brandon looked confused.

"That's it. I meant what I said when I said I love you and forgive you. Let's try to have a nice day together. I'll be ready in 40 minutes."

Brandon spoke warily, "Sounds good. I'll clean up breakfast."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Brandon was driving with Kelly beside him in the passenger seat. This simple fact was not lost on either of them. They felt comfortable with each other, yet not entirely. It felt like a great first date with your best friend. As they drove, Kelly didn't give much thought to where he might be taking her. They listened to music as Brandon would occasionally glance her way and say something that made her laugh or smile or roll her eyes in amusment. Only as they were pulling in did she realize where he was taking her.

"West Bev?! Brandon! Why are we here?" She laughed and Brandon relished in making her smile.

They got out and headed inside.

"Kel, before I cheated on you, we had a great relationship, didn't we?"

"Pretty much perfect, yes."

Brandon spoke thoughtfully and slowly. "I think in that perfection something got lost for me. I want you to think back to the beginning of our relationship. Way back. Freshman year of college. Do you remember?

"Of course I remember, Brandon."

"We've been through a lot together. The fire, the cult, the shooting, a failed proposal, amenesia." He chuckled. "When I think about us, I think about how through every one of those events and more I fell in love with you all over again. Almost losing you or actually losing and you and getting you back...all those times I got a frightening taste of not having Kelly Taylor in my life or as my girlfriend. I was constantly thankful to have you in my life because I knew how impermanent it could be. Since you remembered who I was after your amensia...God that sounds crazy saying out loud...umm things have been pretty perfect, haven't they?"

"Yeah, they were perfect."

"What I'm trying to say here Kel...is that I began to take you for granted. I took our perfect relationship for granted and like the moron that I am, ruined it. I planned today to ensure that will never happen again. To either of us. I planned today to remind us that whenever we feel in a rut we can fall in love with each other all over again...without straying or betraying..."

"You know we talked this morning...and I wanted to undestand...what you just said helped most of all."

"Are you ready to go in? After you..."

Brandon opened the door to the West Beverly High School gymnasium and Kelly was shocked to see what was inside. Streamers, balloons, confetti, a punch bowl...it looked eerily similar to the way it used to look at school dances. Music started playing and Brandon took Kelly in his arms and dragged her to the middle of the gym.

"Brandon you don't dance."

"I danced twice and both with you. Do you remember?"

"Here. Our first date. Right here in this spot. Also, our first kiss if I remember correctly. "

"You seduced me."

"And you're very easily seduced" Kelly shot Brandon a meaningful look.

"Ouch..."

They both smiled and Brandon leaned his head down to meet Kelly's.

"And the square dance in college. I knew then that something would happen between us eventually. I didn' know when or how...I just knew. "

" You know, Kel, there's something I never told you about that night of the square dance. "

"More secrets?"

"Not exactly...it's just that...after we kissed that night...I went back to my room and just kind of layed there thinking about you...about the kiss...about the future...if we had a future...and the next thing I knew the sun was up."

"You stayed up all night?"

"Let's just say you made and impression."

Brandon leaned in slowly and kissed Kelly passionately. As they pulled away and held her closely and they danced a few more songs just holding each other.


End file.
